necessary to prevent capture, previously reporting to headquarters the advance of the enemy, and then a retreat must be effected quietly, and as much under cover as possible, taking care to create non needless alarm.

V. Every precaution must be taken that no signal apparatus, glasses, or papers of any description fall into the hands of the enemy. If necessary to prevent capture, everything must be destroyed.

VI. Chief signal officers of departments or army corps are required to see that the provisions of this order are fully carried out, and that it is promulgated to every officer of the detachment. Nothing gives to commanding generals greater confidence in their informants than to see that they at least are not in the slightest degree excited, stampeded, or alarmed.

VII. It is designed that the officers and men of this corps shall become known and noticed throughout the Army for their bravery, coolness, and reliability under the most trying circumstances. Every officer not only bears upon himself the responsibility of sustaining his individual honor and reputation, but the honor of a corps performing its duties in the dangerous undertaking of establishing stations of observation and communication almost within the lines of the enemy and amid all the perils of the battle-field.

By order of the Signal Officer of the Army:

HENRY S. TAFFT,

Captain and Signal Officer.

CINCINNATI, June 26, 1863.

President LINCOLN,

Washington, D. C.:

I am satisfied from my knowledge of Kentucky that it would be very unwise to enroll the free negroes of that State. It would not add materially to our strength, and I assure you it would cause much trouble. I sincerely hope this embarrassment to the interest of the public service will not be placed in our way.

Please answer at once.

Respectfully,

A. E. BURNSIDE,

Major-General.

CINCINNATI, June 26, 1863 - 2 p. m.

His Excellency ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

President of the United States:

I beg leave to call your attention to my dispatch of yesterday from Camp Nelson to Colonel Fry, Provost-Marshal-General, in regard to enrollment of free negroes in Kentucky. Further reflection strengthens the opinion expressed in that dispatch.

J. T. BOYLE,

Brigadier-General.

PROVOST-MARSHAL-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., June 26, 1863.

Brigadier General J. T. BOYLE,

Louisville, Ky.:

GENERAL: The enrollment is simply taking the census of persons between the ages of twenty and forty-five. I don"t see why infinite